Wednesday’s Best Reviewed: The Americans

We’re up to two shows tonight as June begins, and they’re both big ticket, intense thrillers. It’s certainly no shock that The Americans, thought by at least one reviewer (see below) to be the best show on television, wins the night with its fourth season’s penultimate episode. The second episode of the second season of Wayward Pines receives universally tepid reviews, with the AV Club comparing this year’s offerings to the Mission: Impossible movies, as with different directors “there’s a new flavor to each one, a distinction that makes them stand out, for better and worse.”

As the fourth season of FX’s critically-heralded spy thriller The Americans barrels towards its end, “A Roy Rogers in Franconia” looks at the impact of the Jennings violent and precarious lifestyle on their teenage children. Genevieve Koski at Vulture enjoys the family drama, but is not overwhelmingly in love with this episode which “functions as a table-setter more than an action-packed hour, but there are a couple of very heavy balls in the air as we head into next week’s finale.” AV Club‘s Erik Adams’ emotions are much more inflamed, proclaiming the show “logical…emotional…the best show on TV.” He also fittingly quotes a Duran Duran hit from 1983, the year The Americans currently call home.